The Schrägstich Faker Chronicles

[Simius Rex]

The Schrägstich Faker, probably the most prolific fabricator and purveyor of fake German medal bars and fake German decorations E V E R, is selling his stuff like hotcakes for record prices.  He is capitalizing on the scarcity of good imperial bars with a seemingly endless output of pure garbage.

 

I nicknamed him Schrägstich because of his signature needlework... very prominent and bold diagonal stitching of the backing material.  The backing material he uses is known as Pacific Cloth, a specially woven fine wool-blend used to create storage sleeves, pouches and totes for silverware.  This cloth can fool inexperienced people into thinking it is period-original Uniformtuch.  

 

The artificially aged ribbons are modern and the decorations are about 90% fake.  The fake decorations are sometimes sold by themselves.

 

Sales occur on eBay in Europe with shipping to the USA and Japan.  The auctions start at 1 Euro with bidders' identities hidden.  He is found under several different user names:  ichverkaufalles12345, bogdangapol, norbmaschmi, wuotan1985, manmusma2, peppinochen68, wilro11, inge759ch, maschwanma, aubanan12, egon4791, trumeko28, pueppchenundtuch, salihero, lillyfee1995, kasperle369, galec-galec, furchtlosundtreu14, cairde32, benkosi, koelnerdomplatz09, kokor00, orehilas321, slimcase1958, sanktvith2011, trumeko, just to name a few.  Judging by his auction-descriptions, he seems to have some knowledge of orders and decorations.

 

Here are a few of Schrägstich's creations sold during a TWO MONTH PERIOD... April and May.  Just imagine the volume of garbage sold over the past few years... for jaw-dropping prices.

 

     

Edited June 1, 2021 by Simius Rex

[Simius Rex]

Here is an example of the unbelievable prices Schrägstich gets for his garbage.  

[BlackcowboyBS]

I suppose that he often bids / sells to himself to get higher prices in the end. And too many people trust in the 100 % positive Feedback. 

I have fully stopped any buying on ebay, more than 50 % of every order or medal offered there is a fake.

[laurentius]

I must say I am intrigued by the quality of the Reuss Honour Cross. Maybe we should do an examination and compare it to the real deal. It is the only one of these 'pieces' which would take me more than a second to determine it's originality

[lew]

1 hour ago, laurentius said:

I must say I am intrigued by the quality of the Reuss Honour Cross. Maybe we should do an examination and compare it to the real deal. It is the only one of these 'pieces' which would take me more than a second to determine it's originality

 

That's not too bad, I have problem to determine several pieces shown above.

Edited May 31, 2021 by lew

[Simius Rex]

9 hours ago, BlackcowboyBS said:

I suppose that he often bids / sells to himself to get higher prices in the end. And too many people trust in the 100 % positive Feedback. 

 

I have to agree with you.  eBay has become tedious and exhausting for somebody trying to determine what is real and what is fake.  It's also frustrating to witness how financially successful these unscrupulous sellers have been. 

 

7 hours ago, laurentius said:

I must say I am intrigued by the quality of the Reuss Honour Cross. Maybe we should do an examination and compare it to the real deal. It is the only one of these 'pieces' which would take me more than a second to determine it's originality

 

Here is a photo of a real Honour Cross and also a detail-photo of a real piece next to Mr. Schrägstich's fake.  Absolutely nothing is right about the fake... the proportions of the arms, the pebbling, the medallion ring, the monogram, the Öse, the crown. 

 

Incidentally... the crown doesn't even have a cross!  Maybe it's a piece designed for Nichtchristen! ??? 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Simius Rex

[Simius Rex]

24 minutes ago, lew said:

That's not too bad, I have problem to determine [the originality of] several pieces shown above.

 

It is not a problem to determine originality if you download and enlarge the seller's photos.  None of his pieces are die-struck... they are all CASTINGS, and the evidence for that can be very clearly seen upon detailed examination.  Click twice on the photo below and it will become extremely large and clear.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Simius Rex

[VtwinVince]

Thanks for shining a spotlight on this notorious faker. I have watched his auctions for years, and he is right up there with 'the Club' and a few other shysters who list regularly. I think Schraegstich puts the 'Ohio faker' to shame with his voluminous output.

[Valter]

Thank you gentlemen for pointing this out. I've seen these and always considered them fake - too many too good bars from the same seller. (the photo background is often the same too). I see too a characteristic folding of the last ribbon around the backplate - as the plate would be just a little bit too narrow/short.

[Simius Rex]

Here are a few new offerings of the Schrägstich Faker's excretions... (sorry, I meant creations) featuring his signature assembly technique...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Simius Rex

[VtwinVince]

This guy certainly keeps busy. I would like to know where these fakes are being produced.

[dond]

It used to be that you could warn bidders but ebay shielded the fake sellers by hiding bidder identity from others.

[paul wood]

Which is why rather than spend all your money on medals a good amount should be spent on reference works, then there is no chance of being fooled by this nitrogenous waste. Mind you I am surprised this stuff would fool a visually impaired quarter-wit.

 

P

[VtwinVince]

Unfortunately modern-day Imperial fakes are getting better by the day.

[Simius Rex]

As Vince already mentioned, it would be very interesting to know who is producing these fakes because their quality has improved significantly over time... both the quality of the castings as well as the quality of the enameling.  

 

Case in point... here is one of the enameled fakes currently being offered by this seller.  The detailing of the gilded metal is astonishingly perfect and the enamel is very sophisticated.  I am in awe of how scary-good the workmanship is.

 

And what I find hilarious is, that the seller is including a "certified appraisal" of his fake by the notorious con-artist and master-faker Carsten Staegemeir. 

 

I can't wait to see what this thing sells for.

Edited June 28, 2021 by Simius Rex

[paul wood]

It reminds me very much of the Imperial Russian badges produced in the mid 1990s, the problem was they were too perfect, also the hallmarks were too sharp. These are too even to be real. Funnily enough the best production of the GK NYRussian fakes was the Imperial yacht badge. I was offered a decent sum of money to arrange a large production from the faker. I was tempted but I felt my reputation had a slightly higher value. Had I been offered considerably more, who knows........

 

P

[Claudius]

2 hours ago, paul wood said:

I was offered a decent sum of money to arrange a large production from the faker. 

 

P

 

 

[GMU]

Ugly ?

[VtwinVince]

Up until now we had to deal with the usual Kube\Blass\Graf Klenau pieces, but now we have a whole new generation of fakes hitting the airwaves.

[Simius Rex]

It's time to update the Gallery of Schrott with some of this faker's recent inventory. 

 

I realize that after perusing all the pictures in this thread, you'll probably feel the need to take a shower.  However, what I really hope to accomplish is to provide a database for when these abominations begin popping-up in the collecting community.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Simius Rex

[BlackcowboyBS]

In the SDA-Forum you find a similiar discussion about this medal bar. The great majority of the users of this forum think that this bar ia also the work of the Schrägstich-Faker Medal bar presented in the SDA Forum 

 

PS: the whole thread could be found here.

Edited July 13, 2021 by BlackcowboyBS

[Simius Rex]

9 hours ago, BlackcowboyBS said:

In the SDA-Forum you find a similiar discussion about this medal bar. The great majority of the users of this forum think that this bar ia also the work of the Schrägstich-Faker Medal bar presented in the SDA Forum.

 

Thanks for the link.  It would seem that SDA-Member @saxcob correctly identified the bogus medal bar as the work of the Schrägstich-Faker and provided a link to this thread.  The eBay-Account "Norbmaschmi" is one of the aliases used by our esteemed faker.  (See post # 1 above.)

 

I am glad to see that collectors are using this thread as a source of information.  However, I was disappointed to learn that a fellow collector fell victim to this con-artist to the tune of 1.020,00 Euro !! 

 

Incidentally... you should inform those German Jungs from SDA that they need to join GMIC.  HERE, they can obtain a proper education about medal bars so they can avoid making such expensive and egregious blunders in the future!!

Edited July 13, 2021 by Simius Rex

[BlackcowboyBS]

Hey Simius,

I think that most of the active members from the SDA-Forum, who are capable of reading and writing english are registered here too. As with all forums 80 % or more are pure read only members, so I can't say if they read here as well or not.

From time to time I do some kind of reposting here and in the SDA-Forum with links to the original threads to at least give these members who are just in one of these forums  some usefull information. I do translate the original thread for the audience in the other one.

But some of us here are also in the german speaking forum. So people ought to know the other forum. 

 

I am 100 % with you, that one should be in both, as one can gain good insights here and there. 

Edited July 15, 2021 by BlackcowboyBS

[922F]

See ebay 184951476299 and associated.  Ernst is so cheap because it lacks reverse [ACCORDING TO VENDOR] motto ring, allowing visions of epoxy!   

[Simius Rex]

The substance in the medallion cavity is definitely not jeweler's rosin.  And you're absolutely right about the cross you found on eBay being identical to the fake shown in the photo I posted above on June 24th. 

 

What I would like to know is how a Schrägstich fake ended up in the hands of eBay seller feingehalt0232 who is typically not somebody who sells fakes.  I've purchase items from him in the past and have been very pleased.  It seems that the Schrägstich fakes are finding their way to unsuspecting, legitimate dealers.

 

For the record, here's Schrägstich's cross magnified (left) next to a genuine cross (right).            

Edited July 19, 2021 by Simius Rex